Meet My Princess
by Auspicious Autumn
Summary: When the Townies light the Bullworth gym on fire, they also decide to do it to Harrington House. In the aftermath, the Preppies now have to work together to rebuild what they lost in the fire - including Pinky and Derby's relationship.
1. Chapter 1: The Fire

**Chapter 1**

Pinky Gauthier was practicing with the other cheerleaders on the football field on a rather hot day. They were fooling around with flips while waiting for Mandy to get back from retrieving water bottles for them, seeing as they had already gone through two each.

Even though there wasn't going to be another football game until next term, they were still working on making new routines. They were hoping to have a new performance ready before the first day of school complete with flips—which they never did in a performance before but were excited Mandy wanted them to start doing.

Pinky had just successfully finished a back flip, when she saw smoke billowing from the gym. "Guys, look!"

Christy and Angie gasped. "What are we going to do?"

Pinky turned to them. "We should go see if anyone is in there."

The other girls agreed and they set off. Just as they got to the gym entrance, they saw Jimmy going inside. Pinky hoped he would come out okay.

"What happened?" Christy asked Mr. Burton, interested in gossip. The other jocks stood around yelling in confusion, wondering what they should do.

The gym teacher turned to the girls and shook his head. "The gym is on fire. Hopkins went inside to put it out, but I bet he's the one that started it."

Damon crossed his arms. "Juri and I think Kirby are in there."

Pinky looked around, doing a head count of the jocks that were waiting for their teammates to come out. "Where's Mandy?"

No sooner had she said that, the missing jocks came out of the building. Ted ran over to Mandy and held her in his arms as Juri and Kirby were questioned about what happened by the other jocks.

"It was so fast, one minute I was doing pushups, the next I was pinned down. Hopkins saved us," Kirby wheezed, trying to get clean air back in his lungs.

"Oh shit, not another one!" Casey groaned pointing towards the school. Everyone turned to see Harrington House on fire.

Pinky broke away from the jocks and ran to the place her friends hung out at during the school day. She pushed her way through the crowd of greasers, bullies, nerds, and non-clique students that were being held back by the prefects.

Without thinking, Pinky ran to the doors of the fraternity house. She burned her hands as she gripped the handles of the doors, but ignored the pain in favor of finding her friends. She recoiled as smoke rushed out of the building. She coughed but continued on inside.

Johnny Vincent, the Greaser king, had been watching the smoke with his clique members, debating about whether or not to go inside. His clique knew what he was thinking and were waiting for his decision.

If he went, there was a possibility one of them wouldn't be coming back—they knew very well how dangerous fires were. On the other hand, if he didn't go it might be too late by the time the fire department could come out. But as soon as he saw Pinky Gauthier run inside, he knew what he had to do.

He charged through the prefects with his fellow greasers following behind him. He was scared that the preps might be dead, he was scared one of his own would die, but most of all he was scared of what would happen if he didn't come out with everyone alive.

Lola screamed for him to come back but the prefects managed to hold back the sobbing girl. Johnny regretted the pain he would be putting her through if he didn't come out alive, but as he saw Pinky disappear into the smoke-filled building, he knew he was doing the right thing.

Pinky lifted Gord over her shoulders and slowly made for the exit, but was surprised when she saw a small, red headed greaser taking him from her. "It's okay, I've got him." She watched as he ran out and other greasers ran around the building and picking up her friends. A shorter greaser in a large jacket carried out Tad. A tall, dark one ran out with Parker.

Outside, students and prefects were anxiously waiting to see what would happen to the people inside the burning building. No one moved, afraid they would miss something.

Vance came out with Gord over his shoulders. He gently laid him on the ground. "Hey, can I get a little help here?" he coughed out.

It was then that everyone sprung into action. The prefects moved the little kids away from the fire. The greasers were bringing the preps out and laying them on the ground, then rushing back inside. The bullies ran inside the main building to call for the fire department and alert the faculty. The nerds were checking over the preps for smoke inhalation and trying to make a list of all injuries to report to the paramedics whenever they arrived. The jocks were watching in shock, having come from their own fire not long before.

Inside Harrington House, Lucky was carrying Justin down the stairs. Lefty and Hal were carrying Chad between them until Ricky took over and told them to go outside as they were both were unable to catch their breath.

Pinky tried to wake up Bif but he was out for the count. She nearly let out a sob, how could this happen? All of her friends were so strong; to see Bif, of all people, as being helpless scared her. The head greaser knelt next to her. "Don't worry, I wasn't gonna leave him behind." She thanked him as he picked up the tall ginger.

"Are we missing anyone?" Pinky shook her head. "No, Derby is out at a meeting so that should be everyone. Now go check that all your guys are out as well." He nodded and dashed off, leaving her by herself.

Pinky looked around the room, wanting to give it one last check that no one had been left behind. She was coughing heavily, but was still determined to make it upstairs. She opened went through the door, trying to call out to see if anyone was there. By this time the smoke was so thick she couldn't even make out where the walls should be.

She was about to leave when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. A figure was quickly approaching her. She stepped back, feeling afraid of whatever it was that was coming close to her.

Pinky backed up so far her back hit the staircase railing. She was hit by something across her face so hard she flipped back and fell down to the floor below. She blacked out before she hit the ground.


	2. Chapter 2: The Hospital

**Chapter 2**

Johnny Vincent laid Bif Taylor down on the ground and stood back as Beatrice Trudeau ran forward to examine the fallen preppie. The sound of approaching sirens pierced the air as multiple fire engines and ambulances pulled up to the school parking lot. Everyone made a wide path for the fire fighters who rushed to put out the flames. Paramedics soon followed and moved the unconscious students out of the school.

Just as Bif was about to be taken away, he grabbed onto Johnny's wrist. His eyes struggled to stay awake. He was trying to tell the head greaser something but before he could do so the paramedic pulled his hand back and ran off with him.

Johnny was about to chase after him but he was caught by someone else. He looked down to see Lola clinging to him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. "J-Johnny, I w-was so s-scared! Th-the last th-thing I said to you w-was that I d-didn't need you. I'm so sorry!" He ran a hand through her hair and gripped her tightly with his other arm. "It takes more than a little smoke to get rid of Johnny Vincent."

"Boss!" Peanut came running up to the couple in a panic. "That preppie chick never came out."

Johnny let go of Lola and made to go back in, but his ex-girlfriend grabbed his torso. "No, Johnny, please!" He pulled her hands off of him and gave her a quick peck. "I'll be back, baby. I love you." With that he ran back into the burning building.

Derby Harrington was enjoying his walk to school. He had skipped morning classes so he could meet with the owners of Aquaberry. He had just renewed his contract for another year of modeling and they said they were interested in bringing in some members of his clique as well—he knew Gord would be thrilled at the news.

To top it off, Pinky's wedding dress was going to be put on display soon. At the beginning of the school year Aquaberry had announced they were expanding their merchandise to include formal dresses and Pinky had been their first pick to model the designs. She had graciously accepted and even helped to create the dress she would wear on her wedding day. Derby was not allowed to see it, but he was confident that she would look stunning.

He smiled to himself. Pinky had called off their relationship after he had skipped out on another date, but he knew she would come back to him eventually. They may not have romantic feelings for each other but he knew she liked him a lot.

Derby was shaken out of his thoughts by a fire truck racing past him. Normally a fire truck going down the street would not attract his attention, but when it turned into the school he sped up his pace. It was then that he noticed the smoke cloud coming from the school and he wondered what was on fire.

He walked quickly through the school gates and was shocked when he saw various preppies being loaded into ambulances. Derby ran up to the stretcher that held his second in command. Bif seemed to be the only one conscious, but he was clearly about to pass out. His face was dark and his outfit looked worse for wear. Derby stopped the paramedics from carrying off the tall teen. "Bif, what happened!?"

The red head looked relieved to see Derby and he pulled off his oxygen mask to talk. "Harrington House caught on fire."

Derby's mouth fell open. "Is anyone still inside?"

"I don't know. I tried to ask Vincent but I was dragged away before I could."

The head preppie nodded and let the other teen go. He ran to the front of Harrington House, wanting to see the extent of the damage. The closer he got, the louder everything seemed to be. Why was that stupid greaser slut screaming so loudly? He finally understood why when Johnny Vincent came out holding Pinky in his arms. The greaser fell to his knees and coughed heavily.

Pinky was loaded onto a stretcher before Derby could get to her. He turned around and knelt in front of the head greaser. "What happened?" Johnny looked up at him. "The place went up in smoke. Your chick ran in there trying to haul your guys out. I ran in there and my gang got them out. She didn't come back out so I went in there for her. She was passed out before I got to her." Johnny was stopped from continuing by an oxygen mask that was being pulled over his face by a paramedic.

Derby stood up and tried to find Edward Seymour II, as he was a preppie before he was a prefect. "Seymour!" The prefect turned around and seemed relieved to see the head preppie. "There you are. Man am I glad you weren't in there." "Yes, I was lucky enough to have been in a meeting with Aquaberry. Do you know how it started?" The taller teen shook his head. "No idea. I was on the other side of the school when it happened. When I got here kids were crowding around so I had no idea if anyone was inside. Gauthier ran in there and the greaseballs went in right after her. Listen Harrington, I've got to get these kids into class then meet with Crabblesnitch to figure out what to do next. I suggest you call your father then go to hospital to check up on everybody." The prefect left Derby who turned back to the place he spent so much for his time in while attending Bullworth. The firefighters had apparently found the source of the fire and were putting it out, but the damage was already done. He took one last look of the charred building before he turned around to head out. "Hey, Derby." Ted Thompson ran up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Derby shrugged. "I'll let you know when I figure that out myself." Ted nodded. "If it makes you feel any better, the gym caught on fire too. If it weren't for Hopkins I would no longer have two teammates and a girlfriend." "The gym was on fire as well? Have there been any other buildings targeted?" Ted shook his head. "Not as far as I know. I mean, the nerds had a rat infestation this morning, but nothing like what we had." Derby nodded distractedly before making his way around to the school parking lot. "Hey Harrington, need a lift?" A small red headed greaser came up to him on a bike. "Shouldn't you be with the rest of the greaseballs?" Derby inquired. The red head ran a hand a through his hair. "Johnny and the others are heading to the hospital to get checked out. I'm going to head there myself, but I figured that you couldn't get your bike out so why not help you first?" Derby stepped up and got on behind the greaser. "Why are you helping me? Why did Vincent and the rest of you go in there?" The red head started down the road that led out of the school. "That's just what us greasers do, you know?" Derby frowned. "No, I don't. We wouldn't have done that for you guys if it had happened at the auto shop. We would have let you burn to death." "You might have," the greaser replied. They stopped in front of the hospital and Derby got off. "Well, thank you…?" The smaller teen brightened. "Vance, Vance Medici." "Well thank you, Vance. I owe you one." Vance just waved him off and disappeared down the street. Derby went inside the hospital and inquired as to the location of Pinky. Apparently she was still being examined so he asked for Gord's room number instead. Now he was walking down the hall of the intensive care unit looking for Gord's room. He looked through an open door and found Gord fast asleep. Gord's face was dirty and ashen, with his normally well-groomed hair sticking up and messy. He stood next to his friend and cousin wondering if he should wake him up. "Mr. Harrington." He turned and greeted the nurse. "I've tried to contact his parents as well as Miss Gauthier's but no one is answering at their homes." Derby sighed. "That's because they're on a cruise. I know the number to contact them, and will do so after I know how they are doing." "I've contacted the school and they said you are listed as the guardian for them as well as a few others, is that correct?" Derby nodded. "Yes, I'm the leader of our group at school. Our parents take off so much I am the only one they trust enough to handle emergencies in their absence." "You do realize that because you are underage there are limitations?" "You will find that I have no limitations. Gord's father is a lawyer, you know. If it wasn't legal I wouldn't have been on that form." The nurse looked at him skeptically but knew better than to argue. "Well in that case, you should know that none of the students who were brought in sustained life-threatening injuries. They will be watched for twenty-four hours due to the high amounts of carbon monoxide they inhaled. If they had been in there for another minute they would have died." Derby would have preferred to not hear that last statement. "Was that the only health concern?" The nurse hesitated. "One has a webbed foot." "It's a birth defect, we are all well aware of it." "Well one of them came in with a taped arm—" "He boxes, so he has that normally. Let me rephrase my statement: are there any medical problems related to the fire? Keep it simple—remember I have to explain this to our parents." "So far, I have nothing to report besides of what I have already told you. I'm just waiting on Miss Gauthier." Derby nodded and pulled up a chair beside Gord's bed; knowing he was going to be here for a long time. He wanted to visit Bif, but he knew it was probably best to stay in one place so he could listen for news about Pinky. He let himself sink into his thoughts, wondering how the fire started. Two fires and a rat infestation around the same time as each other could not be a simple coincidence. There was something going on, but he had no idea what. Clearly the greaserballs weren't in on it, neither were the jocks nor the nerds. This left the bullies and non-clique students. He wanted to think Hopkins had something to do with it because whenever something weird happened, it always went back to him. No matter what connection he tried to make, it didn't add up. He put his head in his hands. It was too much to think about. He didn't know how long he had been sitting there but when a groan sounded near him, he noticed how dark the room had become. The sun was just setting, but that meant he had been there for a few hours. Gord tried to bring his hand up to his oxygen mask to take it off, he was half asleep and had not yet come to understand his surroundings. Derby grabbed his hands and put them down. "Don't pull on that, Gord. You need that." Gord seemed to recognize his voice and tried to reach out to him, even though Derby was still holding his hands. "Stop it, Gord." The teen seemed to start becoming aware of his surroundings and looked at Derby questioningly. "You're in the hospital in Vale. Do you remember what happened?" Gord thought for a moment then nodded. He made motions for wanting paper and a pen, Derby looked around the room until he found something that would be good enough and pressed the button on the side of Gord's bed to raise it so he could sit up. Gord winced; clearly not ready to be moved so fast. He settled enough to continue and started writing. When he had filled the entire space of the paper and gave it back to Derby. _Smoke filled up the whole first and second floor. We couldn't figure out where it came from so we tried to leave but the glass doors were locked. We tried to run downstairs. Justin and Chad stayed and tried to break the doors down. Parker and Tad tried to find a find a phone. The last thing I remember was Bif telling me to get help. I was so close to the door. Who got us out?_ Derby put down the paper and stared at his friend. "I don't know exactly what happened, but apparently Pinky ran in to save you and the greasers helped her." Gord's eyes widened in surprise. "Yes, I know. If I didn't see Vincent coming out of Harrington House holding Pinky in his arms, I wouldn't have believed it myself." Gord urgently requested for the paper and Derby gave it back to him. Gord turned the paper over and wrote on it. _Did everyone make it out? Is Pinky okay?_ "Yes, every preppie made it out. The nurse told me you guys just inhaled too much smoke. As for the greasers and Pinky, I have no idea." Gord's face fell and he seemed sad. There was a knock on the door then a doctor walked in. "Mr. Harrington?"  
Derby stood up. "Yes." The doctor signaled for Derby to follow him out of the room silently. The man led him to another room. The door opened to reveal a girl he nearly didn't recognize. Pinky's hands were bandaged up to the wrist. Her face just as dirty as everyone else he had seen except she had a bandage around her head. Her hair was matted with sweat. There was an oxygen mask over her face, an IV for fluids, and a heart monitor to the side of her bed. He looked upon her form in horror. "The nurse explained your situation to me; I hope this is easy enough to explain to the families of everyone involved. Everyone will make a full recovery; I expect the boys will leave here by tomorrow. They're exhausted, naturally, but we are only keeping them here as a precaution. Everyone on staff knows who you teenagers are and we don't want to take a chance with you guys." He turned to Pinky. "Now this young lady has a different situation, she will not be leaving so quickly. Out of everyone brought in, she had the most carbon monoxide in her lungs. Miss Gauthier scalded her hands, but she should recover in about a week without scaring. As for her head, she hit it pretty hard, but there was nothing in the scans to suggest brain damage. She will be sore for a while but nothing permanent." "So everyone is going to make a full recovery?" The doctor nodded. "Yes. That is all the information I have for you at this time. Now, if you'll excuse me I have other patients to attend to." After the door shut, Derby moved closer to his cousin. The doctor said she would recover, but he had his doubts. He had known her his whole life and he had never seen the girl look so bad before. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was getting close to seven o'clock. He knew he should probably call everyone's parents soon. It didn't feel right to leave without saying good-bye—especially in the state Pinky was in, but he knew she would understand if she was awake. Derby leaned forward and kissed her cheek gently before he left for the night. 


	3. Chapter 3: The Aftermath

**Chapter 3**

Derby walked into the hospital the next day. He was exhausted from the lack of sleep but he just couldn't rest without his clique members being a room away from him. He had called the cruise ship and left a message for his parents, but he doubted they would be getting back to him very soon seeing as nobody got seriously hurt.

He went to Gord's room first and was pleased to see his cousin dressed and waiting for him. "Derby I'm so glad you're here. We need to leave here immediately. I am in desperate need of a shower and clean clothes. I'm wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday and my favorite Aquaberry vest is ruined! I smell and look absolutely revolting!"

Derby smiled, grateful Gord was still his old self. He didn't want to admit it, but the previous day had shaken him badly. He was still embarrassed over how emotional he was. He even kissed Pinky on the cheek—something he had never done before.

Soon enough other preppies began to filter into the room with the same complaints as Gord. Derby excused himself so he could check them out.

When their leader left the room, Bif turned to Gord. "Does he know?"

Gord shook his head. "No, he hasn't even noticed he's not here."

Bif nodded. "Let's keep it that way. He's got enough to worry about with Pinky, he doesn't need anything else on his plate."

"How long do you think they'll keep him?" Parker asked nervously.

Tad shook his head. "Never mind that, I'm worried what they're doing to him."

Justin pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning on. "Maybe we could get the jocks to help? We can't do this by ourselves."

Chad sighed sadly. "You heard that guy, if we try any kind of rescue mission they'll kill him. Imagine if Pinky had been there when this happened—she was the original target, after all, and might still be."

Bif straightened up. "Derby will notice his absence by the time we reach Harrington House, so what's the story we're going with?"

"How do you know we're going there? Isn't it too smoky to return to?" Parker questioned.

Bif shook his head. "I called Seymour this morning, he said the first two floors are in a bad state, but the upper floors are unaffected."

Tad frowned. "I know heat rises, but wouldn't smoke do the same?"

"Don't forget that the upper floors are on a separate ventilation system. The first two floors are original to the building, except for the television, everything is like how it was when it first built. Notice how there aren't sprinklers on the first two floors. Also remember that the upper floors were locked up at the time of the fire," Gord replied.

Tad felt a bit stupid for forgetting how modern Harrington House was. It was renovated before Derby started attending from a simple clubhouse to the sturdy fraternity house it was today. If the prefect said it was okay for them to come back in, he knew it must not be that bad.

Bif cleared his throat. "So back to the topic at hand, how are we going to explain the disappearance of one of our members to Derby? We know he's going to demand for answers pretty soon."

After a few minutes Gord came up with an idea. "How about that he is out of town?"

Chad snorted. "Yeah, like Derby will believe that. He never goes anywhere past Tad's house."

Gord turned to him. "Do you have a better idea?"

Chad scowled. "No, but we all know how preposterous that one is. We should just say he was not there when the fire occurred. We've been here this whole time so Derby would know we have no idea where he is."

Justin shrugged. "That will be a start. Let's hope we get him back before things get out of hand."

Just then Derby came back in and beckoned for them to follow him out. They gladly did so and trooped out with the blonde leading them out of the building. They quickly filled the quiet walk with complaints about their appearance but were careful to not mention the fire. Derby gladly joined in, playfully mocking them for not looking their best.

They finally arrived to the school, but were surprised when Derby led them to the dorms instead of to Harrington House. Before they could question him, their leader turned to face them.

"Seymour told me last night that our living quarters are unaffected, but until I see it for myself I don't want you guys in there. Luckily we all keep rooms and clean clothes in the dorm, so I want all of you to get cleaned up. By the time all of you are finished with grooming yourselves, I will know the condition of our beloved home."

"Do you want us to meet you in front of Harrington House or should we wait here?" Bif asked.

"Neither. We'll meet at the gates so we can go to lunch," Derby replied.

Everyone agreed then the preppie leader parted from his clique. Derby walked over to the fraternity house, looking for any sign of damage to the exterior of the building, but there was none. The previous night he had made calls to a work crew his family trusted to clean up the place and it seemed like they were already hard at work.

There was caution tape around the entrance to the building. Derby pushed past the entrance and noticed the doors were missing. One of the workers noticed him and handed him a mask to put on.

Inside antiques had already been taken out and multiple HEPA filters were running full blast as the open windows filtered in sunlight and fresh air. The fire place was taped up and the paneling on the walls was being taken off.

Derby pushed past the activity on the first floor and ventured up to the second. There was a similar flurry of activity on the second. He was pleased how fast they were working. He took out his keys and unlocked the stairs to the third floor. When he got to the landing on the upper floor he took off his mask and was relieved that he was breathing in clean air.

The preppie walked through the hallway down to investigate every room. It was odd to walk through a place that was the same as it had always been, ignorant to the drama that had occurred the day before.

Satisfied, Derby ventured up to the fourth floor. He was pleased to find that this floor was also just as it had always been. It was suitable for his friends to return to. He took off his mask and left Harrington House feeling more at ease than he had been since before the fire.

Derby arrived at the main gates to see his friends all ready to go out. He was interested in the large bag that was in Gord's grip. "What's in there?"

The small preppie lifted it up for Derby to inspect. "I asked the girls to gather her beauty supplies and a change of clothing. Heaven knows how bad we were, she must be a sight as well." Derby approved of his friend's foresight and led the way out of the school gates.

In Blue Skies Industrial Park there is a warehouse behind Spenser Shipping's Warehouse. Inside this abandoned warehouse are various items and furniture. Behind the gated walls and dust-covered boxes, a young man is slumped against the chair he is chained to.

Gradually he wakes up and takes in the situation around him. He groaned when he remembered the previous day.

_He was sitting outside of the greenhouse the preppies had on the second floor of Harrington House, anxiously waiting for the arrival of the townies. _

_For months he had been harassed by those dropouts because they knew his father was the broker for businesses owned by his friend's parents. They were especially nasty towards the Gauthier family, for some reason he could not comprehend._

_He never told Derby or any of his friends about this. Just like with his family's financial woes, he preferred to keep his struggles private. He was afraid his friends would abandon him if they knew how worthless he was._

_It was this fear that led to the situation he was in now. A few days prior, two of the dropouts had cornered him in an alley and held a knife to his throat._

"_Here's the deal, rich boy. You're going to have Harrington and that preppie chick at that place you guys have at that school at 9am on Thursday. You got that? Just those two, no else. Got it?" He nodded as though to agree with them, but after they beat him up and left him to recover, he snorted. He refused to drag his friends into this before, why would he start now?_

_Now here he was waiting for them to arrive. Derby was supposed to meet Aquaberry and Pinky was at cheerleading practice—far away from danger. As for the other preppies, he locked the doors after they left for morning classes, so he knew he was all alone. He expected them to just kick the shit out of him then leave, just like they always did, but he had no idea what they were really planning._

_He hit the ground before he knew what was happening. He opened his eyes to see two of the townies above him with bats and jugs of gasoline in their hands. "Where are they, rich boy? Didn't we tell you to bring them?"_

_He shakily stood up, still sore from the last time they beat him up. "They're not here. No one is here except us. Go ahead and kick my ass, but you will not touch my friends."_

_This ignited rage in the two men who proceeded to punch and kick him mercilessly._

"_Bryce, why did you lock the door? We've decided to ditch class today—Geography had a pop quiz and we were not up for it."_

_His eyes widened and he tried to fight back against the dropouts before they could get a hold of his friends. He received a punch to the stomach before he was pulled up by one of them. The other quickly opened the glass door and started dousing the place with gasoline. He tried to break out of the other's hold but the larger guy was too strong for him._

_He panicked even more as he heard his friends come up the stairs. No, please. Chad and Justin came around the corner and stopped when they saw what was going on._

"_RUN!" He yelled, hoping they would listen to him and leave. Before he could yell at them again a knife was held to his throat. "No one move or I will slice his neck open!" Bif, Gord, Parker, and Tad came around the corner but also came to a halt as they took in the situation._

"_Give me the keys to this place!" No one moved so the dropout shouted again. "Give me the keys or we will kill your pal!" Bif stepped up and shakily handed the keys to the townie. "You've got what you want, now drop him. We don't want any trouble."_

_The townie grasped the keys before punching the ginger teenager into a card table. The dropout quickly lit a match and dropped it on the gasoline-soaked floor before retreating and locking the glass door. "We wanted that preppy chick, but he will do for now."_

_The last thing he saw before he was taken away was Chad and Justin punching the glass door and screaming his name._

Bryce was snapped out of his thoughts by his aggressors opening one of the chained gates. They smirked when they saw him awake. "Do you want to know how stupid you are?" One of them smirked as he sat down close to him.

"All of your friends are in the hospital. Word on the street is that that Gauthier girl ran in to save your friends and is now in critical condition. Apparently greasers ran in there too. Good going kid, you took out more people than we imagined. Even got the right groups of people."

Bryce lowered his head, close to tears. It didn't matter what he did, he still failed to protect his friends and got the greasers hurt even though they had nothing to do with this. One of them gripped his chin and forced him to look up at his face.

The dropout smirked. "Now do you see what happens when you try to play hero? All we wanted was that Harrington bastard and his slut, but you had to complicate everything. So here's what we're going to do—."

The townie was interrupted by the sound a door opening and two voices were heard talking. The two men looked at each other in panic. Before they could move in walked another townie and Gary Smith. They took in the scene.

"Edgar, this isn't what it looks like."

Edgar stepped up and examined Bryce. "Oh yeah? What does it look like to you because it looks like you've kidnapped a preppie kid."

Gary Smith stepped up and glared at them in disdain. "Let me guess, you were the two geniuses who set Harrington House on fire?"

"We panicked, okay? We just wanted to have some fun with Harrington and that Gauthier chick."

Gary wordlessly went up to one of them and kicked him in the balls causing the townie to fall over in pain. "That was not part of the plan! The only thing that was supposed to be on fire was the gym. That was a controlled burn that freaked out the jocks and caused Hopkins to lose credibility in the eyes of the student body. What was the point in setting Harrington House on fire? How would that help our cause!?"

The two dropouts looked down and Edgar moved around to pull at the chains. "Give me the keys." Bryce felt relief when his arms were released. He made to stand up, but being tied to a chair for almost 24 hours made it difficult for him to move, so he fell.

Edgar picked him up roughly. "Okay kid, let's get you back to school. Gary, help me out here."

Supported between the two guys, Bryce passed out until they made it to New Coventry. "Yo, trash get away from my turf!" Johnny yelled. Edgar and Gary could see Duncan heading for the greaser king, as part of an earlier plan, so they dropped the preppie and ran away before they were seen.

"Hey greaser, I slept with your woman!" Johnny and Duncan fought for several minutes before Duncan ran off and Johnny angrily walked home.

Half an hour later Peanut and Ricky came upon the passed out preppie. His face was bloodied and his Aquaberry vest was torn viciously as was his white button-up shirt. Ricky picked him up. "We gotta take him to the dorm, the trust fund babies are probably wondering where he is." Peanut agreed and they walked him over to school.

The sun was setting by the time they got to the entrance gates. They walked through and were confronted by Lola who was leaving the girls' dormitory. "Is he okay?"

Peanut shrugged. "I dunno. We found him on the ground by the bridge to Blue Skies."

"I don't remember anyone picking him up out of the fire yesterday," Ricky stated evenly.

"We should take him to the dorm, then go tell his friends where he is," Lola said brushing the hair away from Bryce's face.

They got to the boys' dormitory and Ricky set him on the couch. Lola went to Johnny's room to look for the first aid kit he kept while Peanut went to every door in hopes of finding the preppies. Lola cleaned up the injured teenager as well as she could. Peanut came back empty handed. "They're not here. I doubt they're at Harrington House, so where could they be?"

Ricky frowned. "Maybe we should check the beach or the boxing gym?"

"Yeah, but what are we going to do about him? I really don't think we should just leave him here," Lola remarked in concern.

Peanut nodded and looked up to see Trent and Kirby walk in talking about something. "Hey guys, do you mind watching this guy? We've gotta find the other preppies, but we don't want to leave him alone."

The bully and the jock came around the couch and were surprised at Bryce's appearance. "Yeah, no prob," Trent replied. The greasers left the preppie and other boys as they went to find the rest of his clique.


	4. Chapter 4: Before the Final Showdown

**Chapter 4**

The last three days had been the longest days of Derby Harrington's life. On Monday, the fraternity house caught fire and his friends were injured. Tuesday seemed as though things were going to be alright as Harrington House had no permanent damage, and his other Preppies were discharged from the hospital in high spirits.

Then Wednesday happened. Wednesday was one of those days where anything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. By Thursday afternoon, he was ready to leave town. When evening came, Derby was exhausted and just wanted the day to end. He didn't want to go back to school or anywhere where someone would want to talk to him, so he settled for sitting in a stiff chair to the right of Pinky's hospital bed.

Derby slumped forward in his seat and moved her arm to her stomach so he could lay his head next to her side. He closed his eyes and sighed as he tried to not fall asleep right there. Earlier that day Gord had come by to fix her up, and Derby was grateful for the other teen's work as Pinky looked so much better than she had been since the fire. Just smelling her familiar vanilla-scented perfume almost convinced him that everything was okay.

"Pinky, dearest, today has been awful for me," Derby whispered as he lazily opened his eyes and looked up at his unconscious cousin. "Bryce is banged up for some inexplicable reason, our boxing trophies have been destroyed, and our parents have decided to split us up. They think you must have some kind of mental deficiency for running into that fire." Derby swallowed thickly, and then continued. "They want me to marry that witch up in Maine. And as for you, they want you to get together with either Tad or that fiend who tried to assault you summer. What are we going to do? Everything is a mess, and while you're asleep, I will be fighting this alone."

Derby sat up and moved her hand from her stomach so he could hold it. "I know we never got on well, but you have to admit that we were a good together. Since Bullworth's founding, never in our family's history there has never been a pair of teenagers like us. Never has a 16 year-old Harrington commanded so much respect amongst his fellow elite, and never has a female Gauthier been so involved with the lower social classes as you."

The blond teen squeezed the brunette's hand. "You've got to wake up. The doctor tells me you didn't even hit your head hard enough to cause any substantial damage other than a concussion you are rapidly recovering from. Therefore, you must wake up soon."

Derby saw that it was getting close to curfew, so he put Pinky's hand back on the bed and stood to lean over her. "You know I've never begged for anything in my life before, but I need you back at my side. Please, everything is going downhill and I feel like everyone has abandoned me. Our fellow elite are keeping secrets, the lower class is rebelling, and our family is trying to tear us apart. Please, please wake up."

As the teen watched his cousin's continued breathing with no change in her unconscious state, he couldn't help but feel frustrated with her as well. In the movies she always wanted him to take her to, the female love interest would wake up right as he was watching her sleep and she would be just fine. But this isn't some fictional love story, this is real life; people don't just wake up at the "right" time. And as much as he wanted her to stir from her slumber, he knew better. Pinky was a princess—she would wake up when she was ready, not when someone else wanted her to.

Derby turned to leave the room, but gave her one last look—he couldn't give up his hope that she would wake up. After a moment, he turned away and shut the door behind him. He straightened his posture and walked out boldly; exactly how a Harrington would be expected to act in public.

"Hey, Derby."

The blond teen turned as he left the hospital, and to his surprise he saw Johnny Vincent sitting on his bike smoking a cigarette. Derby was in no mood for a confrontation. "Listen grease ball, can we call a truce for the night? I'm not up for a fight tonight, maybe tomorrow."

Johnny followed Derby as he walked down the street. "I'm not here to call for a rumble, Harrington. I just wanted to see how your chick is doing. I know we hate each other, but I can't get the images of her in the fire out of my head, and I know only family can go see her, so I figured my best bet would be to talk to you."

Derby sighed and stuck his hands in his pockets, as Johnny slowly followed next to him on his bike. "She's still unconscious, and we don't know when she's going to wake up. The doctor insists that her scans are clean and she's getting over her concussion, but he can't tell me why she hasn't woken up yet."

Johnny frowned and exhaled a puff from his cigarette. "That's crazy, man. I can't believe anything from this week has happened; it all just seems like a crazy dream no one can wake up from. First the fires, then I get hauled into Happy Volts—."

Derby looked at the greaser in shock. "You went to the—?"

Johnny nodded. "Yup, I got a cell and was forced to go to _therapy._ All because some stupid townie kid said he slept with Lola. I know we haven't been together since February, but I still loved her, you know? So I went nuts and started tearing stuff up, and then before I knew what was happenin' I was thrown into the back of a truck and being driven through Blue Skies."

Derby had wondered where the greasers were for the last few days, but he had no idea this was going on. Those guys must have been going out of their minds wondering where he went. "How did you get out? They don't release anyone."

Johnny scoffed. "Hopkins busted me out before he got expelled."

Derby stared at the other teen, wondering how much he had missed while he had been dealing with his own problems. "Hopkins was expelled? What for? He does stuff all the time and they picked now to kick him out?"

Johnny shrugged. "I have no idea, I didn't pay attention to the reason 'cause I was caught off-guard that it even happened. It's crazy, it's all crazy. Nothing that's happened this week has made any sense."

Derby shook his head as the two teens made their way to school. "I think I'm just going to lock myself in my room for the rest of the week."

Johnny nodded. "Yeah, I feel like doing the same thing myself, but my gang won't let me. They're worried I'll do something drastic. They're probably flipping out right now wondering where I am."

Derby gave the greaser a small smile. "You've _escaped_ from your own followers? Dear me, I never thought I would see the day when Johnny Vincent would be running away from his own greasy gang."

Johnny scowled at him. "I'm not afraid of them; I'm just tired of them smothering me. They think I'm gonna kill myself or somethin' 'cause I told Lola I didn't want to get back together. I love her, but I don't want to go back to Happy Volts." Johnny shook his head and got off his bike so he could stomp his cigarette into the ground. "I needed to cool off, so I figured I'd see how your girl was doin', but apparently you're not doing so hot as well."

That was the second time the brunet teen had talked about Pinky as though they were dating. Usually that belief was something he encouraged, but tonight, it was sobering. "Vincent, please do me a favor and don't refer to my cousin as being my girlfriend."

Johnny looked at Derby curiously. "What do you mean? I thought you two were hot for each other like me an' Lola?"

Derby stopped walking and Johnny did as well, but the blond didn't want to talk so he turned around to the beach and the brunet followed him to the lighthouse. It appeared no one was around, so he sat down as the other quickly propped up his bike against the building and sat down next to the blond teen.

"Did you two break up before the fire or somethin'?" Johnny asked carefully.

Derby shook his head. "No, we weren't even dating in the first place."

The greaser blinked in confusion. "Wait, you two weren't all for the whole sleeping with your siblings thing?"

The prep shook his head. "No, not at all. It's a rather revolting practice, in our opinion, but our parents were trying to force us together to keep the bloodline going. We only agreed to look like a couple because we knew neither of us wanted to do it; in fact no one in our social standing who attends Bullworth is okay with it—well except Gord, that chap is into some bizarre things."

The brunet teen looked taken aback. "Wow, I just, wow. I didn't know. On the first day of school you were so chummy with her, I assumed…"

The other shook his head. "We worked hard to convince everyone we were engaged because we didn't like who we were originally assigned to be with. Once our parents were convinced we were attracted to each other and started pushing us together, we stopped acting close at school. We have respect for each other, but we only get along so that we can get our way. If we didn't work together, we would be miserable."

Johnny frowned. "What do you mean by 'assigned'? I get it that you two weren't voluntarily dating, but what about everyone else? Don't tell me it's not a matter of choice?" Derby gave him a look and his face took up an expression of horror. "They still do arranged marriages? Aw, man, that's freaky."

Derby laughed hollowly. "You don't even know the start of it. You want to know why this whole _arrangement_ isdespicable? It's not about having sexual relations with someone you're related to or being told who you will spend the rest of your life with. The worst is that from day one you're told how to live and because you never hear anything different, you assume that's just the way things are."

The blond took a deep breath and continued. "But then you find out that everything you were ever told was wrong and the path your life is going isn't how your life should be going according to everyone else in the world. Then you hit your teenage years and you're terrified because you are rapidly hitting the point where you're going to be stuck for the rest of your life and you know there's nothing you can do to change it. And then one day you remember that you're not the only one going through this and you see that either people are terrified just like you, or they've accepted their destiny and talk about it as though it's how things _should_ be done. If you have a problem with it, they wave cash in your face and tell you to either accept it, or act like you're fine with it. If you don't, then you're only option is to kill yourself because you know they will block any chance at going to college or getting a job; you won't make it because they don't want you to and will do everything to get you erased from existence."

Derby stopped and realized he was crying. He knew Johnny was shocked with his behavior, but he didn't know how to stop himself, so he just sniffed and continued. "While all of this was going on, I remembered that I was stuck with someone for the rest of my life. She is this vile creature who has _good breeding _and everything my parents want to take over as the next head of the Harrington family, but she's not someone I wanted to be around. Last summer, there was this gathering that was like what you would know as a family reunion, but it was for pairing up future spouses. Pinky lived closer to me than any of my female cousins, so I was familiar with her, but I didn't really like her all that much. I found her future _betrothed _trying to force himself on her and I saw that she was clearly not a willing participant. I'm a better fighter than him so I knocked him out with one punch and took her away from him. I didn't leave her alone for the whole event, even pushing away my own betrothed, and our family took notice of it. What we did has never been done, you don't choose your spouse, they are chosen for you. But I somehow managed to defy my parent's wishes and convinced them to let me court Pinky instead."

Johnny blinked at him. "So why are they against you two now?"

The rich boy stared down at the water below them. "They never fully gave up on the idea of separating us, so when they found out that she went into a burning building and tried to rescue people, they told me that they would be separating us. By next term, she would be shipped to a school somewhere close to her original betrothed, and mine would be coming down to replace her."

The greaser scowled and started to become angry. "That's crazy! What that girl did was _noble_. I don't even like you trust fund babies and I can freely admit that what she did was something admirable. She's not a match because she went through smoke, give me a break."

Derby shrugged. "It doesn't matter. That's their decision and there's no chance they'll bend this time."

Johnny lit up another smoke and started puffing away. "This whole thing is stupid. You know, before Monday, I thought Earth would be better off without rich kids, but now I think the world would be better off without your parents. I still don't like the idea of cousins kissing, but I'd prefer you two together over the pairing your family wants."

Derby chucked darkly. "So would I. You know, the last part about this that is hard to deal with is that I've known Pinky my whole life. That girl has been in my life for years. Even when my parents kept going on trips and the servants kept being replaced, she was there. When her parents got divorced and her daddy was awarded the main custody of her, I was there for her as well. We didn't see each other often and we never really liked each other, but we were the only constant in each other's lives. No matter what happened, she would always be there. After last summer, I was so sure she would be around me for the rest of my life. I almost forgot how controlled our lives were, and then today I was reminded of who Pinky and I were. I was so comfortable with my position within my peer group at the Academy, that I had forgotten how powerless I really am. And now, the one part of my life that I thought was mine to have, she's been taken from me and she doesn't even know it yet."

Johnny looked at Derby in sympathy. "So what are you going to do now?"

Derby shrugged. "I have no idea, I really don't. I just need her to wake up. If she doesn't wake up, that pig will take her dress, and I just can't stand the thought of it."

Johnny looked at the blond in confusion. "What dress?"

Derby wiped his face. "Pinky designed her wedding dress with Aquaberry. She only got it because she was going to be marrying me. But now that I'm betrothed to someone else, that revolting thing is going to get it instead. That dress was meant to be worn by her, not by anyone else. Even if I can't have Pinky, I can't stomach the thought that someone else would be wearing _her_ dress."

Johnny looked blankly towards Old Bullworth Vale, and Derby stood up. "I've said too much. I need to go to Harrington House and go to sleep."

As the wealthy teen walked off, the other stayed where he was sitting deep in thought.

Derby managed to successfully sneak into the school without any of the prefects noticing, but he didn't manage to avoid Bif. The blond sighed as he met the eyes of his second-in-command. "I was just visiting Pinky."

Bif crossed his arms. "I know about you guys being split up."

Leave it to the tall boxer to know everything before he had a chance to tell him. Derby looked up at Bif tiredly. "Good, then you know that I don't want to talk about it." He tried to move past the red head, but the other teen just put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "Tad petitioned to get her. His betrothed is crazy about Pinky's and has already expressed interest in switching." Derby gave his friend a small smile. "I hope it goes well for him." Bif tried to touch his shoulder, but he shrugged the large hand away from him. "Bif, I'm fine. I just need to rest. We'll talk in the morning."

Derby hurried away from Bif, and went to his room. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit his pillows.

A serious of bangs and yells caused Derby to wake up suddenly. He groaned as he saw it was three o'clock in the morning. He was going to murder whoever was making that racket! The exhausted youth didn't bother to put on a dressing robe, and instead stomped out of his room still wearing his rumpled school uniform, and with his hair messed up.

Derby slammed the doors to the first floor staircase open and looked at the chaos below. It took him a second to really understand what was going on. The room below was a mix of preps in their pajamas and greasers carrying a garment bag and a poorly closed wooden crate.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING!?" Derby shouted above the noise. Everyone turned their attention to him. Johnny and that red head, Vance, stepped up. "We got somethin' for you, but your guys ain't lettin' us set it up! We risked our necks to get it and they ain't helpin'!"

The prep leader sighed in frustration as the noise from another round of arguing began to start again. "Just let them set up the damn thing so we can all get back to bed!" The Greasers set down the crate and stepped back as Vance pointed at Gord. "Help me out over here, trust fund fairy. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm pretty sure you do." Gord sputtered indignantly, but went to assist the other anyway.

As they were pulling parts out and putting them together, the preps realized that it was a mannequin in that box. Derby knew what was in that garment bag and felt his heart begin to race, and he weakly descended down the stairs to see it up close.

Vance unzipped the bag and Gord pulled it out with a look of awe on his face and quickly went about putting the garment on the mannequin. The two teens fixed it to look like it was supposed to, and after setting up the accessories with it, they stepped away from it.

It was Pinky's wedding dress. Derby knew it was hers instantly from the style of the dress that reminded him of the gown she wore on Halloween, but this one looked much nicer. The dress was floor length and made of a rich-looking white satin fabric. The waist was up higher than the Halloween gown, and the sweetheart neckline was up higher as well. The belt was of thin Aquaberry blue and pink ribbons. The vale was shoulder length and attached to a diamond tiara. The shoes were low-heel with diamonds on them as well. Derby had been expecting the dress to be saturated with diamonds, with more skirts, and to have a long train, but this was perfect in his eyes because _she_ made it. He moved forward and touched the fabric, looking at it longingly.

The moment was broken when someone cleared their throat loudly. Everyone turned to see Gary Smith standing in the doorway. "Nice dress, Harrington. I presume this is what you're going to wear when you marry Bif?" Before anyone else could react, Derby had raced across the room and slammed the younger teen against the wall. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't beat you to death right now." Smith was clearly surprised by Derby losing his cool so quickly—as the Harrington heir was normally calm regardless of the situation. "Easy there champ, I just came by to deliver some news."

Derby stared the smaller teen down for a moment, and then released him harshly. Smith straightened himself up and now that he had the attention of the entire room, he started to talk. "Tomorrow the bullies, jocks, and nerds are going to be starting a riot. I thought maybe the inbreds and the grease balls would be up for it."

Tad scoffed. "Yeah right, there are teachers and prefects, remember?"

Smith merely grinned at the other teen. "They will be _indisposed_ tomorrow, so there's no barrier with them. The jocks are going to trash the library and the nerds are going to destroy the gym. As for the bullies, I have no idea what they'll do. But I figured you would want to get in on that action."

Johnny had enough of the scarred teen talking and shoved him roughly. "You said what you had to say, now scram. We've got business to discuss."

Gary Smith frowned, as though he was about to retort, but then immediately changed his expression into one of false sympathy. "If that is what you wish." After he left, Johnny turned to Derby. "Can you believe that psycho?"

The prep leader turned his attention back to the dress. "I think he's full of it, but if he's right, then men, you may participate. I, however, will not be leading you into battle. I'm done with fighting."

The preps looked at each other in confusion, but didn't question their leader's decision. The greasers were in shock that their enemy wasn't going to be taking advantage of the situation and looked to their leader for what to do.

Johnny nodded. "Okay, I ain't gonna fight you either, but if any of my guys want to get involved with the rumble, I'm cool with it. I think I'm gonna clear out the girls' dorm and make sure the kids don't get involved. If there's really going to be a riot, I don't want anyone to be killed. Is that understood?" A chorus of "yes boss" went around.

Johnny stuck out his hand to Derby. "Truce?" Derby shook the hand and went back to staring at the dress in front of him as the greasers took their leave. "Hey grease." Johnny turned back to look at him. "Thanks." The brunet nodded and left with his gang. After Bif came back from locking the front doors, Derby turned to his clique members. "I think it's time we all went to bed. We have a big day tomorrow." With that, the blond took his leave and was alone for the rest of the night.

AN: I'm pretty sure this will be the longest chapter in this story. If there is anyone who's having trouble visualizing the dress, send me a message and I'll post a sketch of the dress. Thank you to everyone who reads this, it means a lot to me.


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